ALBUM REVIEW: BANKS blossoms through the motions on 'III'

‘III’ presents a more mature side to BANKS, sonically and lyrically. She has mastered her craft.

Jillian Banks, artistically known as BANKS, has been in the realm of dark pop music since her 2014 breakthrough track, ‘Beggin’ For Thread’. Three albums in and she has made a name for herself in that same realm, knowing her vision down to a T as proven on new album, ‘III’.

The opening track, ‘Till Now’ is a scene setter with deep backing vocals anticipating what’s to come throughout the rest of the LP. This is then proceeded by lead single, ‘Gimme’ – an unapologetic and heavy track entailing on owning what is hers. Whilst the next few tracks throw you off emotionally as the tone darkens down to acknowledging the love has died,

“Our love is tainted
And I wish I could change it
And we’re always gonna be contaminated”

As we proceed halfway through the album, we’re greeted with an up-tempo track, ‘Alaska’ which showcases BANKS emerging from a hopeless romantic, as shown in previous tracks, to knowing her worth as she falls out of love, or at least that’s what she’s trying to get across lyrically. We see ‘III’ lead a game of tug of war on the artist’s romances. Whilst, BANKS will be singing about being heartbroken by the next track she’ll be completely over it but then spiral back to being heartbroken. It’s a vicious cycle a lot of us can relate to and we think this was purely her intention with the way the tracklist of ‘III’ is set out.

A stand-out track, ‘The Fall’ effortlessly garners fans attention as we listen to BANKS rap her way through the third verse of the track calling out her lover in question. The track also has a repetitive chorus, which instantly encourages you to feel the anger of a heartbreak – “Girl you almost made it through the fall”.

‘III’ concludes with an ode, BANKS acknowledging that there is no going back to how things were, but what a shame they can’t. The two tracks, ‘If We Were Made Out Of Water’ / ‘What About Love’ reminisce on the past and how things were as she prepares to bid farewell to her past lover. BANKS really went through the motions when writing this album and it has paid off in aspects of songwriting.

In terms of production, there are no high risks or surprises, it’s a signature BANKS record through and through. Whilst ‘Look What You’re Doing To Me’ may have thrown fans off at first listen, it has aged quite well and when considered as a part of ‘III’, it fits perfectly and deserves its place within the album. We’d give this album a solid 7/10. A contender for alt-pop album of the year.